Reducing substandard products in Nigeria

Just like the knotty causality dilemma of the chicken and the egg, one cannot really say which one came first in Nigeria – corruption, or fake and substandard goods. In any case, no matter how we look at it, one thing still sticks. Both of them are the bane of our traumatised polity. Fake and substandard products are killing Nigeria in the same way corruption is.

For instance, the collapse of the country’s textile industry is as a result of substandard fabrics that flooded the domestic market, found everywhere and sold at cheaper prices. According to some experts, N15bn is believed to be lost annually to fake or counterfeit goods annually, directly causing loss of tax revenue to the government, income loss to local manufacturers and loss of jobs in the employment that would have otherwise been generated.

In fact, the easiest way to appreciate the damage done is when we consider how the characteristics of an authentic product are becoming more elusive as the day goes by in our country today. An authentic product is supposed to inspire customer confidence; induce value for money; be safe; be fit to use; be healthy; be environment-friendly; eliminate financial losses to company and buyer; and be protective of the climate.

Last Tuesday, February 6, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria held a one-day regional stakeholders’ workshop on the reduction of substandard products in Nigeria in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.

The SON is the Federal Government’s agency vested with the responsibility of standardising and regulating the quality of all products in Nigeria for the strict enforcement of powers of seizure, confiscation and destruction of sub-standard products, including powers to seal off premises where such defective products are manufactured, stored or sold.

The sensitisation workshop was aimed at creating awareness among consumers and the public at large on how to identify substandard products, particularly electrical cables and appliances, and passenger vehicle tyres. The workshop was expected to enhance active participation in the minimisation of substandard products; increase understanding and public knowledge on the required standards and quality of products; enhance stakeholder partnerships; and ensure consumers make informed decisions on product quality.

There is no overemphasising that substandard or adulterated products – of auto and aviation spare parts, medical devices, construction materials, food and drugs among others – pose great threat to the health, safety of the environment, property and lives of the citizens. On the same hand, counterfeiting destroys creativity; acts as a death knell to the efforts of genuine manufacturers; discourages investments and entrepreneurship, as it renders their goods non-competitive.

There are many reasons why substandard products are still in the Nigerian market. The first reason is non-commensurate penalties and fines for offenders. Until recently in 2015 when the SON Act of 2004 was amended and replaced by the SON Act 14, there were almost no penalties and deterrent fines. The penalties for offences stipulated in the laws of Nigeria appeared to be incentives to criminal activities, rather than a deterrent. The highest fine for bringing fake and counterfeit goods into the country was about N50,000. What this means is that a criminal who knew how much he was likely to make from the business, would prefer to do the bad thing and keep his fine of N50,000 in his pocket in case he was caught.

However, there are now relatively severe penalties for offending manufacturers, importers and sellers of sub-standard or fake products in the amended SON Act 2015, ranging from N1m fine to life imprisonment.

Secondly, also till recently, there was lack of power to prosecute. Before SON impounds a fake product, certain law has to be followed, but it did not have prosecutorial powers. The laws before the amendment only allowed the police and the Attorney-General of the Federation to prosecute, and it was affecting enforcement of regulation against counterfeits. This was why one would hardly hear about which and which offenders SON had been able to send to jail as a result of counterfeiting.

Naturally, if the agency handed over arrested offenders to other agencies of government for prosecution, it would not be the same passion that SON had that those other organisations would exhibit. However, through the passing of the amended SON Act by the National Assembly in 2015, the agency has now acquired new powers to arrest, prosecute and jail purveyors of fake and sub-standard products across the country.

This is why I think the stakeholders’ sensitisation is very important. Nigerians need to know what the new laws are saying, so that eventually a new spirit for compliance shall suffuse the land.

Thirdly, there are the rampant cases of mischievous collaboration by agents and representatives of business organisations and merchants. Most products brands record very high sales, but the bulk of the sales is not by the brand owners themselves. It is their agents and representatives who, ironically, are the major source of counterfeit of their products. Therefore, dealers and brand owners have a responsibility to regularly check on activities of their agents and reps and work with the regulatory agencies to educate Nigerians about the negative impact of counterfeit products coming from unknown corners of their stable.

Fourthly, there is inadequate data base to monitor products. For instance, when SON finds a bad product in the market, the problem would be how to trace it to the retailer or agent who brought it into the country or to the manufacturer from anywhere in the world. An improved electronic database, therefore, needs to be created for registering and regulation of products. Through that process, they will be able to create a more robust database that would help them trace the fake product to its owners. Once an improved database is established, it will be easy to blacklist companies who are agents or importers, so that they are no longer able to bring in these counterfeit products into the country again from any point of entry whatsoever.

Fifthly, Nigerian consumers are not adequately educated about their rights. Consumers need to be sufficiently educated on the negative consequences of counterfeit products and how to identify them and report to the appropriate authorities. Communication is the key in matters of good citizenship. The media should also assist in the education of consumers. The more people are aware of their rights as consumers and the consequences of substandard products, the more the problem would be able to be tackled. In America and Europe, there are one dollar shops and one pound shops where cheap products are sold. Anybody that goes there knows the quality of goods they are buying as well as what to expect. But in Nigeria, people go to the same market and buy all kinds of products without knowing the quality of what they are buying. Someone might be buying products that bear the label of the original without knowing they are buying a counterfeit product.

Also, there is a problem of modernisation and the influence of the social media. The internet has made the world to be a global village. While it can facilitate trade, it also promotes sales of substandard goods and services; and even products we don’t need, and we can neither recycle nor handle the waste. Online auction sites, like eBay, have no warranties of authenticity and quality control is nonexistent, counterfeiters can easily distribute misleading or fake products around the globe. Popular personal-marketing websites was inadvertently turned into substandard goods destination points.

In all, Nigerians should consciously reject substandard products. It is our patriotic and ecological duty to do so. In a country that is still on ground zero when it comes to recycling and green technologies, fake and substandard products are part of the major causes of the ecological hazards we face on a daily basis.

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